The 2 Best Gifts I Have Ever Received

It is definitely hot in here, but you are worth it. So we're gonna do this video as promised yesterday and on Monday. I have a special video for you today. In honor of Mother's Day, I wanted to share the two gifts that meant everything to me. The best gifts I've ever received on Mother's Day. And you can guess. One was from my daughter, one was from my son, and these gifts knock it out of the park. Are you curious what they are? Well, I can't wait to tell you. So let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine river first nation in Treaty 3 territory in Northern Ontario. And I have dedicated my life to Indigenous Canadian reconciliation, working with the best people to bring this country together. If you're new here, thank you so much for checking this out. I think I share some really valuable content, so don't forget to subscribe. And if you're already subscribed, thank you so much for going on this journey with me. Now, I promised you today I was gonna share with you my two the best gifts I have ever received. And my daughter's the eldest, so we're starting with my daughter. And then I'll tell you about my son's gift. But my. Well, I guess the first one came from my daughter and my son to. To be fair. And then the last one actually wasn't a Mother's Day gift. It was a Christmas gift. But I digress. The two gifts that I love more than anything. So the first one I can show you, and it is actually this bouquet of flowers with the little card on it. Aren't they pretty? Yes. They're artificial. There is a point. And I think one of the things I love the most about this is everything in Anishinaabe culture. A statue, a picture. Like, every part of that picture has significance. Nothing is just there. There's a story, there's a teaching in it. And. And this. This V of flowers that definitely applies to. But for you to understand why that blew me away, you have to. I have to share a little bit of backstory with you. So this is my first book. This is the book that. The entries from this book are being shared in Honorary Indian Daily, my new podcast. And on I'm going to share an entry with you, and I guess it'll be in Honorary Indian daily on the 12th. It's called your Mother's Day gift. So listen closely to this, because then you're going to Understand the gift. I wrote this poem and gave it to my mom years ago. And I replicated it and included it in the book. So here it is. You must be thinking, what a strange gift she has given me. Not a dozen roses, but a lot more of all types and colors. They're pretty, but why? The answer is simple, mother. Your gift is made up of 35 flowers, one for each year that I have enjoyed your love. They are of different types and colors to represent the many stages I have gone through with your support, from an infant to being a mother myself. They are beautiful, almost as beautiful as you are. And finally, they are made of silk to last forever, just like my love for you. That is the poem and the flowers that I gifted my mom ages ago and then several years ago. Now I'm going to guess 2009. It's either 2009 or 2010, and I think it's 2009. My kids show up at my door on Mother's Day with this vase and this little card attached. And they tell me to read the message. So I'm going to read it to you now. And it's called. It's a little poem. And it's called your Mother's Day gift. You must be thinking, what a strange gift they have given me. Not a dozen roses, but a bouquet of pink and blue. They're pretty, but why? The answer is simple, mother. Your gift is made of 46 flowers. 22 for each year your son has loved you and 24 for each year your daughter has two. Together they make up the 46 you years you have loved them both. They are pink and blue for the girl and boy you raised. And they are together in one vase because of the bond we will share, son, daughter and mother. They are beautiful, almost as beautiful as you are. And they are fabric to last forever, just like our love for you. I was wondering if I was going to make it through that without crying. And you can bet that I bald like a baby the day I received them, which was the exact same reaction with the second gift. Now I can share you the second gift with you because it would involve a process, but several years ago now, I'm going to guess about 12 years ago on this one. My. We do like the picking the names at Christmas time. And my son had picked my name. Secret Santa. That's what it is. So I didn't realize. And again, for a little bit of context, when my mom passed away, I have her album collection, her records, because it was something my mom and I used to do. All the time. Sunday, no TV was allowed till 6 o', clock, till Walt Disney came on. Yes, I'm showing my age. Sunday was Mom's day with the record player. And she played her records all day, whether it was Elvis, whether it was country, whatever it was, if you didn't like it, leave, because that's what was going to happen. And my mom and I, like, she taught me about life, listening to country songs and. And often we would have like, what, what did they say there? What is that line? And we would replay a song over and over. So I have the best memories of my mom thanks to her record collection. And I had her original record player and her albums. But when I opened up Keith's gift to me, it was a record player. And it's actually designed to look like an old fashioned radio. It's actually really super cool. And. But my first thought was, honestly, I don't need a record player. I have Mom's record player. And for me it wasn't. That sounds horrible, but I didn't want to give up. Mom's record player was the problem. Not that I didn't appreciate the gift. I wasn't giving up another piece of my mom in my mind. So I looked confused and I looked at him and he said, did you read the box, Mom? Did you read what it does? And I'm thinking, what does it do? It's a record player. It's pretty easy to figure out. And then I started reading the box, and what the record player does is it allows you to record your records. You can put a USB thumb drive into the. I wonder if you could plug a computer directly into that. Interesting. And you can record the records onto the usb. And as I'm reading this, my son looked at me and he said, mom, before the records get too old and too scratched and you lose them, record them and put them on your computer. So you always have Mom's albums. Yep. Old like a baby. And to the extent we laugh about it now, but I was crying so hard that my son got concerned after about like five, what seemed like forever, five minutes maybe, he just looked at me and he's like, mom, that's a good cry, right? And I was like, it is the best cry. Because with these gifts, my kids showed me not only how much they love me, but how much they know me and they love and accept me. And any Anishinaabe out there, any indigenous woman out there, can tell you how rare that is to have that total, complete love and acceptance. So to all the mums out there that are celebrating on Sunday. Thank you for all you do. For all the women who have adopted kids, who foster kids, who have stepped into the people who have stepped into the place of mum when moms couldn't do it. Here comes my latest. He just. Thank you. Thank you. And I know there's a whole bunch of women out there who wish they could be moms, in my opinion, and this is not a popular one. And by the way, if you're a mom of an angel baby, you're still a mom. My eldest is in spirit world and has been since she was 2 months old. She's part of the family. But this is not about honoring all women. This is about honoring the moms. It's the hardest job out there yet, so. And you never think you're doing it right. And they don't come with owner's manuals and, and I mean with your eldest, you've never had a child that age before, so you don't know what to do. And just when you think you figured it out, your second kid is totally different and your third and your fourth and whatever. So let's keep this day to honor the mums without doing thy diluting it and adding in everyone else. They deserve this time because they gave us our time, their time when we needed it. So happy Mother's Day to all that are celebrating. I love you and I'll see you next week. I hope you enjoyed the gifts. Bye. Bye.